267. Big Punisher - "Twinz (Deep Cover 98) (ft. Fat Joe)" (Loud Records, 1997)
I feel like (and I might be wrong, strawmen being what they are) for folks who weren't really into hip-hop like me and some of friends were in 1998 (by which I mean reading the Source, watching Rap City, etc.), Big Pun means something very different; let's say a very large, talented rapper that died and the first hugely popular Hispanic rapper. And he very much was both of those things. But I'm not sure they (those magical strawmen) realize just how insanely dope we thought Pun was when he came out. I remember having my mom buy me Capital Punishment, stopping at the mall on the way back from a 6th grade basketball game maybe, coming home, listening to it once, and immediately calling one of my friends to rave about it. Pun was on some completely next level tongue twisting shit and he was great at it.
It should also be noted that Fat Joe at this point was, in the order of things, a solid if unspectacular rapper, loosely affiliated with DITC crew, not the kind of guy you'd anticipate releases from, but you might have a tape of, a rapper who had paid his dues and had all the hardcore cred in the world. Certainly, before Pun, the odds on Fat Joe becoming super famous in the next decade were fairly long.
But Joe does his best to keep up with Pun over the "Deep Cover" beat here, and comes as close as anyone could have hoped for. Pun murders him, of course, but he would've murdered about anyone at this point. The amount of rapid-fire rhymes and syllables he squeezes in to each line is a joy to behold. (I had completely forgotten until seeing it today that Snoop appears in the video, giving our Boricuan heroes blessing to use the beat).
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